On his program of Friday, January 23, 2004, FOX personality and pervert Bill O'Reilly talked with author and chairman of the Fordham University Department of Communications Study, Dr. Paul Levinson. They were discussing the case of Catherine Bosley, a young news anchor at a CBS station in Youngstown, Ohio. While vacationing in Florida, Bosley entered a wet T-shirt contest, photographs from which were disseminated on the internet.
Dr. Levinson argued that a person's private life is... well, private. O'Reilly disagreed, and claimed that it is right and just for a person in the public eye to suffer professionally for private indiscretions. In light of his recent embarrassments, we wonder if Bill "Falafel" O'Reilly would be inclined toward a different argument today.
The following Bill O'Reilly quotes are taken from the discussion transcript on Dr. Levinson's web page.
"Let's be realistic. Politicians, news people, clergy all have images, and all depend on the trust of the public to succeed."
"The station has an obligation to put on people who are going to bolster their news image. This woman, in a community like that particularly, but in — I think in any city in the USA, becomes a joke, and, therefore, the station becomes a joke, and you can't be a joke if you want to compete in the news area."
"...in every newscaster's contract, there's a moral clause that says, if you embarrass the station publicly in any way, they can let you go. Why do you think that's in there?"
"This isn't her private life... Once you go public and do something like that, although it's not illegal, it embarrasses your employer because your employer operates on credibility."
"I — you know, I — Professor, I mean, theoretically, sure, in a perfect world, we could all be naked doing the news, but that is not what news people are here to do."
"We're not going to see her on FOX, believe me."